The Big Cheese

Happy Father's Day everyone!

I started to write this post that was a story about my dad and me and our relationship through the years.  How him buying my first snowboard when I was eighteen would lead me to where I am today.  How he bought my first ticket to Burning Man, again altering my life and helping me to become the person I am today.  Yes, Burning Man can do that for you.  How he became the Big Cheese and how everyone knows him, loves him and has a great story about him.  It became a much bigger story than I had anticipated.  We've really been through a lot over the years.  Before he was the Big Cheese and after.  I am going to save that story for another time. I still wanted to share something that would sum up my dad and give you a taste of the kind of guy he is.  His sense of humor is like no other.

Before Kyle asked me to marry him, he of course had to ask for my dad's blessing.  My dad knew something was up when Kyle asked him out for drinks one night.  My dad came prepared.  As Kyle asked for my dad's blessing, my dad handed him a piece of paper and asked Kyle to fill it out for him.  The following is my dad's hilarious way of saying, "welcome to this crazy family..."

Potential Son-in-Law Questionnaire

Can you afford Lisa?

Will you be a loyal husband?

Do you have a prison record?

(Drunk and disorderly doesn’t count)

What size diamond (number of karats) did you purchase? Should be equivalent to two months gross salary.

When can we expect a grandchild?

(Is this a shotgun wedding?)

Would you consider naming him/her after a grandparent, specifically me or Squeeze? (We’re not that concerned about the other grandparents.)

In becoming a member of  “Family Fromage”, will you be attending Burning Man with the rest of the family?

Will there be fire spinning at your wedding?

Lisa has a lot of, well let’s just say freaky circus friends from Cirque Berzerk and Wandering Marionettes (fire breathers, stilters, dancers and aerialist and such) will they be invited to the wedding?

What kind of music will be played at the reception?

(Check all that apply) (No Trance please)

Dubstep           House              Progressive                   Breaks (Funky Breaks could work)

Trip Hop          Glitch            Deep House                 Hip Hop

Bassnectar would be great 

Do you have plans to buy a house? LA County? Orange County?

Will it be large enough for in-laws (specifically Squeeze and I) to move in at some point? (We’re not that concerned about the other in-laws.)

Do you intend to snowboard with your future father-in-law?

Preferences:

(Check all that apply)

Irish Whiskey               Scotch              Bourbon           Vodka              Gin         Goldschlager

Budweiser                    PBR                 Imports            Micro Brews

Sativa               Indica


And in case you were wondering, Kyle filled it out on the spot, said no to fire-spinning, then proceeded to drink whiskey with his soon-to-be father-in-law.  The rest is history.

Rainbows & Unicorns - My Kind Of Programming.

I don't like to watch movies or TV shows with a lot of violence in them. You know, Sopranos type shit.  Can't. Do. It. I can get right to the part where they bash someone's head in and I run out of the room screaming or hide under a blanket.  Then I ask Kyle to tell me what happened. Kyle's typical response is: "It can't always be rainbows and unicorns".  I'm pretty sure it can be, but until I can convince someone to have a TV channel that only has rainbows and unicorns flash on the screen all day, I'll just have to settle for Nickelodeon.  But since I don't have kids (yet) I really don't want to hear crappy songs all day that will make me long for the days where I want to see someone getting whacked for being a rat.

Since I make Kyle sit and watch all my crappy reality shows, I figured I should try and watch a few that he likes.  Dexter, totally into it. Breaking Bad, yep. Sons Of Anarchy?  I'll join SAMCRO right this minute. But I cannot and will not watch Game Of Thrones.  Nope, never going to happen.  I have tried, trust me I have. Everyone and their GoT. I get it, it's great and yes we all know you read the damn books. Good for you.  Kyle shared with me the hilarious videos of everyone's reactions to the "Red Wedding" episode and that right there confirmed that I will never watch a single show and I am OK with that.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs: Oh, Noa. and she of course sums up how most women feel about shows like GoT.  In a hilarious way.  Check it here:

Oh, and if you're a big-time TV Producer, let's talk about my new channel: Rainbows & Unicorns. I have tons of ideas for it.

It's A Sunday Thing.

Hello June and Happy Sunday!  Kyle and I are heading to Squamish today to hike since it is so nice out!  But as we do every Sunday we'll come home and end our weekend with a pasta dish...

I grew up in an Italian family that loved parties, loved to eat and loved traditions. We still do! I also grew up with my Grandparents living next door.  My Grandmother was a Sicilian fireball and my Grandfather is a stubborn Calabrian.  I'm half Italian and half Irish, when I was little I asked why I didn't have an Italian last name like my Grandparents or all of my Cousins?  The answer I got still makes me laugh to this day:  I was told that although I am half Irish, when I was born, the Dr.'s took my Irish blood and when I turned eighteen I could go back and get it.  As far as I was concerned, I was 100% Italian.  Growing up next to my Grandparents was the best experience a child can have! I am not sure my parents always liked it but to me it was awesome!  My Grandma let me drink coffee, let me stay up late to watch Johnny Carson and my best friend growing up lived on the other side, so we would stay up all night talking to each other from our windows. My Grandma died unfortunately when I was seventeen years old. I will never forget that day and I will never forget all of the special times I was lucky enough to share with her. One of my favorite memories was the tradition of having sauce every Thursday and Sunday.  If those days fell on a holiday you could bet the house would be filled with Aunts and Cousins making homemade pasta while the sauce cooked for hours.  If the pasta wasn't being made from scratch, my Grandmother would go to the Italian deli to buy pasta. Sauce was never from a jar, that you could count on.

When my Husband and I moved in together we started making different pasta dishes on Sundays and it has now, five years later become our family tradition. When we have kids they will also know this tradition and hopefully have the same fond memories as I do. I love that so many of my Cousins still have this tradition and it makes me smile when I see a post on Facebook about sauce being on all day.  There are few things in life that I can never give up and pasta is one of them. I am lucky Kyle doesn't have a weird allergy to pasta, I am not sure how I would explain this to my family!

I thought I'd share a few of our favorite recipes that are on the Sunday rotation. I can't share the family sauce recipe but thankfully there's Pinterest and FoodGawker. I find tons of great recipies on there. 

Tag Pic Pac Pasta (Carrabba's Italian Grill)

I'm not a fan of Italian chain restaurants, but once Kyle made this for me, I was hooked!

Pesto Orecchiette With Chicken Sausage

I substitute with a mix of hot and mild Italian sausage.

 

Linguine with Asparagus and Egg  

Easy like Sunday mornings.

  People always ask what my favorite pasta dish is and I have to admit that although I grew up on sauce, my favorite is spaghetti aglio olio (garlic and oil).  It was actually one of my Grandma's favorites as well as my dads.  That's my go-to comfort dish!  Do you have a favorite pasta dish?  Leave me a comment below! 

Happy First 5th Anniversary!

Shortly after Kyle and I got married, Kyle made it a point to let me know that we would only be celebrating one anniversary-our wedding anniversary. I reluctantly agreed that yes, November 12th would be the one anniversary that we would celebrate. This year though I feel we should celebrate because we met five years ago on this very day. We have been through so much in these five years and to me, it's a day worth celebrating.

When we met I was ready for a relationship. I came into it with an open heart and mind. I was having the time of my life and wanted to share it with someone. Kyle on the other hand had just found out his mother had breast cancer and had gotten out of a bad situation where the last thing he wanted was a relationship. He was just looking to take his mind off of things. That first night turned into a weekend and every weekend after that, we were inseparable. (I should say that we had been talking on and off for a couple of months so we at least kinda knew each other!). We had an instant connection and he knew he could trust me and lean on me during the difficult time with his mother being sick. We spent that summer at the beach in Laguna and I can honestly say I had never been so happy in my life. The time came though when my world would be turned upside down. The next year would be spent rethinking my career, having surgeries, moving and "not having the time of my life." It's this next year that Kyle stood by my side, took care of me, had my back, and loved me unconditionally.

These past five years we have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Not only in our lives, but our friend's and family's lives too. One of the highs I should note is that Kyle's mom, Marge is Cancer free! We have grown so much as a couple and I wouldn't have wanted to go through it with anyone else. So Happy First 5th Anniversary to my amazing Husband, and I cannot wait to celebrate our Second 5th Anniversary on 11/12/16!

So shiny and new!

Scene's From Our 'Hood - Pirate Woes

One of the reasons I love our location is that we are walking distance to most everything.  Need an expensive but ridiculously good coffee? Go to 49th Parallel.  Want a bacon rimmed Caesar with bacon flavored vodka? Yeah you do, well head on over to The King's Head. Craving sushi? Walk down to Octopus Garden. Fresh ricotta/ red pepper and feta spread? Whole Foods is right on the corner, and if you are craving Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels, you'll have to drive to Bellingham to Trader's Joe's right?  Wrong.  This is where Pirate Joe's comes in.  It's a little shop where the owner carries a very limited amount of Trader Joe's most popular items. Yes, it's a little bit more expensive but everything is a bit more expensive here. I just love the fact that if I need something, they may have it.  And honestly, it reminds me of home.  Even if I am not buying anything, when I walk by I smile, yes I am that dorky. 

Pirate Joe's is not affiliated whatsoever with Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's has a problem with the owner buying the products and reselling them in his store. I am not a lawyer so we'll let them figure it out, all I know is I think most people are fully aware of what is going on in the store and you can either choose to shop here or not shop here. I only come here to get a few things, like those damn Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels.  Seriously, have you ever had one?  They are like crack. Anyhow the owner recently took the "P" down so now his sign says "Irate Joe's."  I hope both parties can come to some sort of an agreement.  If you want to read the whole story you can do so by clicking here.

Below is my FAVORITE Trader Joe's item, what's yours??  Leave me a comment below!

Hello, I am your crack for the day.

The little store with ALL THE THINGS!

Everybody's Working For The Weekend.

It's Saturday!  I'm not sure why I am excited by this since everyday is like a Saturday for me right now.  But I do love the weekends, this is when I get to spend the most time annoying helping Kyle with our never ending to-do list since moving into our new home.  Instead of boring you with "Project Backyard," which I will undoubtedly do later,  I am going to share this video that I came across this morning from the Jay Leno Show.  We watched it twice and I laughed so hard, it brought tears to my eyes.  Anyone that knows me knows I love karaoke but this couple takes the cake.  The most awesomeness cake ever.  Have a great weekend!

New Beginnings

Welcome to my new blog.  Many of you are probably thinking "What happened to The Gaulinosocopy?" And by many, I mean maybe three of you are wondering this.  I was going to keep the name, because honestly it still makes me laugh.  But with our move to Vancouver I thought we should start fresh and I quite like this new name too!  Many of you were also asking us "How will we keep up with you when you move?" And this too is slightly exaggerated.  But if you were wondering and you do want to follow along, this is the place.  It's going to be all about this beautiful new city we live in, the amazing friends we are making along the way and random stuff thrown in because I can do that sort of thing.

I hope you enjoy our journey.

From Vancouver with love,

Lisamarie & Kyle
(Cody & Maggie too!)

disclaimer:
*I never claimed to be a writer so please, unless you are one of my many talented writer friends, do not call me out on all of my grammatical errors.